The Old Folks Home

[superchemicalgirl]

Thanks Old grey mare and Scg. I was pleased with them.

You did nice and as a regular seamstress I don't see anything wrong with them. You should be proud.

I am about half done with the quiet book I am making for a friends kid. I still have 3 pillowcase sets to make (should take about 3 hours but I have to find the fabric I want to use) and a couple mug rugs then a table runner before I can breathe easy before Xmas.

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: Thank you. I appreciate your opinion.

I am not doing much for Christmas this year.

 

[Latestarter]

@alaskan

Blood tests came back

One of my goats is diseased.... There is no auction house in town for me to take her to... Actually, I don't think anywhere in the state...

So either we need to butcher her, or pay her to be butchered,

for both. She is an 8 year old goat... Double

And it isn't a bad disease.... It is CAE, which is anything from a small cold, to full blown horrid death. She clearly had the small cold variety... But will now test positive for the antibodies for the rest of her life.... So no way for me to get her a "date" to rebreed her....

So upset!
Luckily, the deseased goat, though the best looking, is the one the kids like the least and wanted to sell in the spring time.

Sorry that you're finding this out now... As Canuk said above, I would re-test in a month or two and see if it still comes back positive. The disease is contagious through contact with glandular secretions like saliva, and since the affected goat is in with your others there is a good chance she may have passed it on while sharing eating areas for hay and such. If they have been exposed then they will soon test positive as well. What to do going forward is going to depend on your long term plans. If she is indeed positive and you are able to get her bred, you can pull the kids born as soon as they pop out and bottle feed them with pasteurized milk to prevent them from getting the disease. That way you could still sell the kids.

Be thankful it's not CL http://waddl.vetmed.wsu.edu/animal-disease-faq/caseous-lymphadenitis or Johnes http://www.johnes.org/general/faqs.html

You ought to consider joining the forums over on the sister site backyardherds.com There's a really great group of active goat folks and a wealth of info and experience shared over there.

Don't buy goats from an untested herd unless you're prepared to potentially deal with these diseases.

 

[pennyJo1960]

@Alaskan I am so sorry for the positive but it is true false
positive can happen retest her in about a month

 

[Alaskan]

I dunno...

CAE is mostly transmitted though sexual contact and nursing.... It isn't super bad contagious within a herd.

They have spent most of their time outside in a large pasture, or free ranging...not in barn confinement.

I knew that Holly had a chance of having CAE when I bought her... But I took the risk anyway.

So, I am thinking that it is most likely that Holly's positive is a true positive.


And the tests here aren't too expensive for just the test, but you have to add on the cost of the needle, and the blood tube, and the shipping so it ends up being closer to $50.

Anyway... We do know how to butcher large animals, it is just that it is a bunch of work, and I have problems imagining that an 8 year old milk goat will be tasty. Though I guess we could turn her into sausage....

 

[pennyJo1960]

I dunno...

CAE is mostly transmitted though sexual contact and nursing.... It isn't super bad contagious within a herd.

They have spent most of their time outside in a large pasture, or free ranging...not in barn confinement.

I knew that Holly had a chance of having CAE when I bought her... But I took the risk anyway.

So, I am thinking that it is most likely that Holly's positive is a true positive.


And the tests here aren't too expensive for just the test, but you have to add on the cost of the needle, and the blood tube, and the shipping so it ends up being closer to $50.

Anyway... We do know how to butcher large animals, it is just that it is a bunch of work, and I have problems imagining that an 8 year old milk goat will be tasty. Though I guess we could turn her into sausage....

How difficult would it be to allow her to live out her
days in a different home?

 

[drumstick diva]

sorry Alaskan

 

[microchick]

I've had a super busy day and just had a chance to sit dwon and catch up.

Alaskan, I am so sorry to hear about your doe turning up positive. You must feel as though you are caught between a rock and a hard place at the moment. I would definitely get her retested and get the whole herd tested for your own peace of mind before making any decisions.

My favorite motto is: Have faith and wait. The waiting part is hardest for me.

We had considered getting a pair of dairy goats but one of the main negatives that caused us to get chickens instead is that there were goats on our property when we bought it and we know for a fact that the Amish owner wasn't heavily into testing or vaccinating.One positive is that there are several dairy goat herds around us so we know that those goats are being monitored.

As it is I'm continuously worried about parasites on our property left over infecting my flock.

I sure hope things work out for you.

 

[Alaskan]

How difficult would it be to allow her to live out her
days in a different home?

If I lived down south... Easy peasy.

The problem with CAE is that it isn't always the nasty horror... And all of it tests the same... They haven't yet figured out a way to test only for the bad version.

So.... Down south there are full herds that have the mild version of CAE that have no medical problems at all, and do wonderful, and have no issues.

Actually, my baby sister has a large goat herd, and her herd has the mild version of CAE.

However, Alaska is so small...... And no one wants to admit that they have the stuff.... Because the bad version of CAE is pretty nightmarish, and there is no way to test between the two (and actually, it is more than two things, it is almost a spectrum of viruses, or at least results from the virus... I am sure I will be corrected in full whatever....)

The result....

I do not want to own a buck.... So the only way to freshen my girls without owning a buck is to have them test clean...

I thought I knew one person that might have a CAE possitive buck... But she isn't sure on his status, since she has never had him tested.

I could get the friends buck tested, and if he is possitive for CAE, use him as the stud... But that is a bunch of trouble... And maybe her CAE is different from mine... And bad things would happen if they were mixed....

Holly isn't an awesome milker... So it makes more sense to eat her, or give her to someone who will eat her, then to go to a bunch of trouble to breed her or have her shipped down south to my sister.

 

[Alaskan]

 sorry Alaskan

Thanks!


@microchick

Luckily CAE dies off very quickly... But not all diseases do. Some parasites stay around for frigging ever!!!!

The new big fad in the goat world is breeding your goats with Kiko goats that were goats abandoned in New Zealand for years... With the result that the Kiko goats have excellent resistance to parasites.

My baby sister has a big enough herd now, that she is selecting for truly hardy goats. It is interesting to watch her goats over the years and see how they have fared. When she first started out she bought quality dairy goats, but one of them needed to be on a very regular deworming schedule or else, and the other was never as susceptible.

Fascinating stuff. My sister finally bought herself a Kiko buck to help improve her herd. He isn't a very nice beast, but not horrid either. Her dairy buck is nicer.